"It's my bad, Naruto," said Kakashi, eyeing Naruto's injury. "I should have helped you before you got hurt, but I didn't think you'd freeze up like that. Oh, and don't move around too much; those clawed gauntlets of theirs are poisoned. Moving will only spread the toxins to the rest of your body that much faster; you'll need to draw out the poisoned blood before it does any damage to your body."
Sakura looked at Naruto's bloodied hand. If only she had that skill of Chifusa's, she might be able to be of help, but the system hadn't given it to her just yet.
"Good job, Sasuke, Sakura," Kakashi then said lazily. "These two are Chūnin from Kiri, so I'd say you've done a pretty good job, all things considered."
A shiver ran down Sakura's spine; Sasuke was staring at her with an odd look in his eyes, and for once, it wasn't at her chest.
"You weren't this good back at the academy," he said, a hint of resentment barely perceptible in his voice. "Were you just pretending to be a loser?"
Sakura needed a moment to think of an answer, so she opted for a distraction.
"My, Sasuke," she said, fluttering her eyelashes seductively and hating every moment of it, "I never realized that you'd been watching me so closely."
The problems with the original Sakura were the following:
For the entire duration of Naruto, Sakura had only acted like a maiden in love or a princess in distress. She had nothing in her mind but Sasuke, so she had wasted a large part of her formative years fawning over him rather than training. As such, she had spent the entirety of that time with no Jutsu except those of the academy.
Then came Shippuden; after training with Lady Tsunade, Sakura gained the superhuman strength granted by Chakra Enhanced Strength, but the problem now was that she couldn't hit anything but the ground with her fists… most of the time. Sakura was slow; slow to move, and slow to react.
During the battle at Tenchi Bridge, Yamato literally had to push her out of the way of Orochimaru's Kusanagi sword, since she'd zoned out watching Naruto do all the work.
So basically, Sakura had slow reflexes, slow movement speed and no way to effectively use what few techniques she had in combat. Her only saving graces were her chakra control and strength, but she could only use them to support Naruto and Sasuke… until now.
"Just answer the question," Sasuke said coolly.
As one might have expected, Sakura had inherited no fighting skills from her past as Tsutomu. She only had the muscle memory from her body's previous occupant, and the Kenjutsu experience granted by the system. What really brought everything together was the Minato's reflexes cheat; it improved her mastery of her own body's limits, as a by-product of increasing her nervous system's signal transmission speed.
And yet… that wasn't all there was to it. Now that Sakura's head was free from the haze of love it had been trapped in, she could now focus on what truly mattered to her: the power of friendship. And also boobs. Mostly that last one.
"It's because I've just realized what my Ninja Way ought to be," Sakura said patronisingly, as if what she was saying was self-evident. She then put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side. "I want to become the best kunoichi in the world, so that I can stand proud as a member of Team Seven. You can leave your backs to me!"
She grinned, and tried her best to imitate Kakashi-sensei's thumbs up.
Sakura wasn't just saying all of this to dispel Sasuke's doubts; after living a boring life as Tsutomu, why should she return to playing a supporting role? And since she was now a girl, Sakura was suddenly much more preoccupied with women's rights than she had been before; and what better way to ensure that she got a fair treatment in life than by becoming truly strong?
To become the best kunoichi in the world, Sakura would have to become the strongest and the sexiest woman alive. And luckily, Chifusa's Breast Flow abilities would help her achieve both of those things…
"I'll surpass even Lady Tsunade," Sakura continued, "And then— Naruto, what the hell are you doing to yourself!?"
Naruto had just stabbed himself in the hand to expel the contaminated blood, after Kakashi had asked him whether he preferred to return home to Konoha or continue on with the mission.
While Sakura and Sasuke had been talking amongst themselves, Kakashi had been interrogating the Demon Brothers, the two Kiri-nin; and he had also updated the mission difficulty to B-rank, after hearing the truth from Tazuna: a rich man named Gatō had hired shinobi to interfere with the construction of the bridge connecting his island to the mainland, since he preferred that the Land of Waves rely on his shipping company to allow him to conserve his monopoly on trade in the region.
"I swear I'll never freeze up and let you all down again," Naruto began. His voice was quavering, and yet, it was filled with determination. "I won't lose to Sasuke or Sakura; I'll protect you, old man… I swear it by this pain in my hand, and this kunai! The mission continues!"
"Naruto, we could have checked the Demon Brothers' things for an antidote," said Sakura gently. "And there was no need to make this big of a wound to drain the bad blood; at this rate, you're gonna bleed to death…"
Naruto's face was turning paler by the moment.
"Here, give me your hand," Kakashi offered. "I'll bandage you up."
"Jeez, Naruto," said Sakura with a shrug. "You're such a masochist."
In truth, there was no need to worry about such a small wound; as the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki, Naruto possessed a healing factor that would make quick work of any minor injury.
------------------------------------
The Land of Waves was a rather misty place, all things considered. In Sakura's opinion, Team Guy or Team Kurenai would have been a better fit for this mission; the Byakugan was much better suited for this place than the Sharingan. If only due diligence had been done, they wouldn't be in this situation…
In any case, the Hokage had given them this mission, and the decision had already been made to continue, so the group continued southwards until they had reached the sea. There, they had taken a small motorized launch to cross the strait between the Land of Fire and the Land of Waves and made landfall on the island under the mist's cover.
They had been walking on the road to Tazuna's village, when Naruto had suddenly hurled a shuriken at a bush.
"Right there!" Naruto shouted.
He was quite eager to prove himself after freezing up against the Demon Brothers, but it turned out that what he had shot at hadn't been an enemy shinobi, but rather a cute bunny rabbit.
"Quit it, Naruto!" Sakura snapped. "They say killing small defenceless animals is an early warning sign that you'll grow up to be a psychopath, you know!"
"You know," Inner Sakura pointed out, "they also say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness."
"You're the last person I want to hear that from!" Sakura hissed under her breath.
"Hearing and replying to voices that only you can hear?" Inner Sakura continued smugly. "Second and third on the list."